Why Will Smith, why?! "The Karate Kid" is fine the way it is, why change it?! It reminds me of the old joke about a screenwriter, a director, and a producer having lunch together. The screenwriter orders this great soup that he loves. The director tastes it and agrees that it's great. Then, to the screenwriter's and director's horror, the producer pees into the soup. When the screenwriter and director ask the producer why he ruined the soup, he replies "I didn't ruin it, I made it better!"

I hope this "Karate Kid" remake isn't Will Smith peeing into the soup that is a pop culture classic, which should be left alone.

"Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie ... but, no, no. John Hughes did not direct my life." ("Easy A", 2010)

Precisely. And bullying's a tough enough subject to handle, particularly in today's day and age where everything's black and white as far as the institutions are concerned. The original walked the line perfectly; strong sympathy for Daniel while at least giving his tormentors rationalization for their actions (at least in their own deluded minds). And since he only wanted breathing room and not their heads--which is the only way Hollywood thinks bullying can be stopped properly these days--our sympathy remains with him throughout.

My gut just tells me the remake will get this completely wrong, and send the wrong message to younger viewers.

I wasn't much of a fan of the first 8 Karate Kid movies or how ever many there were. I've still never figured out why he never became "The Karate Man." That aside, I've already expressed my views on remakes frequently on this board.

Remaking the movie is bad enough, but a certain unintended consequence will follow. It's will inevitably unleash renewed interest in enrolling every prepubescent child in the U.S. in some "marshal arts" school (in reality, they aren't learning true marshal arts, they are just learning creative ways to bloody each other). Every strip mall in the country already has a resident marshal arts school, all of them run by some redneck whom you'd otherwise never dream of leaving your child unaccompanied with for five minutes. Do you all suppose we could start some sort of petition to stop this thing?

Nine times out of ten, in art as in life, there is no truth to be discovered, only an error to be exposed.--H.L. Menken

Now the role is to be taken on by Will Smith's 10-year-old son, Jayden, in a new version of the original movie, which will be co-produced by the youngster's famous father.

And Macchio is adamant that the new film won't be a hit with the public - because too many movies are ruined by remakes.

He tells MTV.com, "It feels pretty good that some people are pretty angry that they're trying to remake The Karate Kid. It feels good that the public feels you don't touch certain things. Some times you go back to that, and probably shouldn't."

"From my personal view, the filling the void of what Mr. Miyagi was - and the magic of that character - is going to be the toughest task. I (also) don't know where the romantic story-arc goes (with Smith's Daniel) at that age."

I don't know if Jackie Chan can do Mr. Miyagi justice, but I guess he's the best choice for the role.

Here's a LINK to read a Yahoo Movies item about the start of production on the "Karate Kid" remake, featuring a casting notice that makes me think this may not be a Razzie contender after all -- The old Pat Morita role of Mr. Miagi will apparently be played by the usually likable Jackie Chan...

This has the potential to either be just a pathetic cash in remake or Jackie Chan's best American performance ever (he looked pretty cool in the trailer)

To be honest, I grew up being a fan of the Karate Kid movies but truth be told, they were no masterpieces of Cinema. However Pat Morita added some sophistication to them (so did the rest of the cast especially in the first installment) and who knows, they might make it a better film just like how The Crazies remake proved to be superior to the original. I still have an issue that it's called Karate Kid despite taking place in China and the main character is practicing Wushu. Still this might be Jackie's chance to prove he can act to a mainstream US audience, he's already proven that back in Hong Kong with non-comedic films such as Cop Story (Not connected to Police Story) that won him Best Actor awards in Asia.

To be honest, I grew up being a fan of the Karate Kid movies but truth be told, they were no masterpieces of Cinema.

Major understatement.

However Pat Morita added some sophistication to them (so did the rest of the cast especially in the first installment)

Fair enough

and who knows, they might make it a better film just like how The Crazies remake proved to be superior to the original.

Which is a MAJOR break in the trend. Although, from what I've heard, the original Crazies was fairly stupid.

I still have an issue that it's called Karate Kid despite taking place in China and the main character is practicing Wushu.

On stuff like this, I'm a purist. Now, I'm not a martial arts genius, but in old movies like Karate Kid and Rocky, the fighting was abysmal. In KK, all he ever does is step to the side and throw a single punch or a kick, and he somehow beats people who are CLEARLY professionals. In Rocky, especially the first one, it was just walk up to the guy and punch. No defense, and then the 1 punch knockouts and blahblahblah.
And YET, I think this is even worse. If you call it the Karate Kid, and you're not doing Karate, you're doing a form of Kung Fu, and you're wearing Chinese clothing, you're mixing your cultures up, looking somewhat stupid in the process, and more importantly, committing a FLAGRANT cash-in on someone else's work. You're making THE KARATE KID, and THE KARATE KID doesn't do KARATE?! Come ON. This is absolute bottom of the barrel marketing tactics. Why don't I make a movie called "Sonic the Hedgehog and Mickey Mouse present Citizen Kane" and have it be about a vampire tennis player who has laser eyes?
Take the name of something else that did well 20 years ago, and use it to sell the movie now to the Nostalgidiots (Ooooh... I like that, that's the best word I've come up with since Seltzerberg!) who are willing to see a movie about anything from when they were kids. Completely kill the vibe of the original source material.

Still this might be Jackie's chance to prove he can act to a mainstream US audience, he's already proven that back in Hong Kong with non-comedic films such as Cop Story (Not connected to Police Story) that won him Best Actor awards in Asia.

Well... I mean, he's not ACTUALLY a great actor. He's an acrobat with an absolute genius sense of comedic timing, and there isn't really a lot of competition on a global scale in this case.
In this case, it looks like Jackie Chan playing an older Jackie Chan, or maybe almost even a Simon Yuen, but that's OK. Personally, I love Jackie Chan, but he's not really broadening his horizons on this role, and I don't see him pulling off the Zen that Pat Morita managed to emit.

That's not necessarily true, The Fly, Ben Hur and The Maltese Falcon were remakes of other films and ended up being superior to the originals and from what I read, Romero's original version of The Crazies was among his least critically received and least successful films.

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